New Japan Pro-Wrestling General Discussion Thread

[Stopspot]

GHC Tag Team champions Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls (known collectively as TMDK) and GHC Jr. Heavyweight Champion Taiji Ishimori have spoken openly about challenging their counterparts in New Japan.

For TMDK, it all began after Tokyo Sports named them 2013 Tag Team of the Year. In an interview with Tokyo Sports after the win (translated by Enuhito) the team put Bullet Club on blast. Mikey Nicholls told the paper that Bullet Club is giving foreign wrestlers in Japan a bad image. Shane Haste called them a group of bratty kids.

For Ishimori, Enuhito reported that he took to Twitter to request a double title match against IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion Kota Ibushi. Ishimori has held the GHC Jr. title since January 2013 and defended it successfully nine times. He says there’s no one left in NOAH for him to beat.

TMDK are an Australian team who debuted in NOAH in 2011. They defeated the New Japan team of Toru Yano & Takashi Iizuka to become the reigning GHC Tag Team Champions in July of last year.

Ishimori is a Japanese jr. heavyweight who originally trained in Mexico and was a young lion with New Japan in the early 2000s before ending up with NOAH in 2006.

In recent years NOAH and New Japan have been open to inter-promotional matches, typically on NOAH shows for NOAH titles. Yuji Nagata is set to challenge Takeshi Morishima for the GHC Heavyweight Championship in February. Katsuyori Shibata defeated Maybach Taniguchi in a singles match at a NOAH show in December. As noted earlier, Toru Yano & Takashi Iizuku competed in NOAH and held the GHC Tag Team Championship for a time in 2013. Enuhito reported the Bushiroad card game King of Pro-Wrestling is set to release a set of cards featuring NOAH wrestlers.

What is rare is a champion vs. champion double title defense where both the GHC and IWGP titles are on the line. The last time was in 2011 which resulted Giant Bernard & Karl Anderon holding both the IWGP and GHC tag titles at the same time.

So all the talk might not just be bluster as the front offices of NOAH and New Japan continue to be more open with working together.

@leojay look at them fucking Aussies

 

[Pop Tatari]

Ishimori vs Ibushi :

 

[Stopspot]

Wonder when they'll have those matches if they happen. Since the feuds going forward are kind of set.
BTW @Pop Tatari you watch the Desperado/Liger vs Ibushi/Bushi match yet?

 

[Pop Tatari]

Yeah i watched it last night his powerbomb finisher was brutal. I loved that he refused to tag liger.

 

[Testify]

Gonna mark for Ishii killing Naito @ New Beggining.

 

[Stopspot]

Desperado is going to be a good addition to the jr heavyweight roster. Wish they'd add some more guys to the jr singles though. That's where New Japan is seriously lacking right now.

 

[Stopspot]

Gonna mark for Ishii killing Ibushi @ New Beggining.

Ishii is facing Naito. Not Ibushi. Ibushi is feuding with El Desperado and is facing him in a tag match at New Beginning night one and in a singles match at night 2.

 

[Testify]

Ishii is facing Naito. Not Ibushi. Ibushi is feuding with El Desperado and is facing him in a tag match at New Beginning night one and in a singles match at night 2.

I'm a screwup, meant Naito. I seriously don't like Naito, hopefully Ishii wins the title asap. The man fucking deserves it after being screwed by not letting him appear on Dome show, dem morons.

 

[Stopspot]

I'm a screwup, meant Naito. I seriously don't like Naito, hopefully Ishii wins the title asap. The man fucking deserves it after being screwed by not letting him appear on Dome show, dem morons.

Yeah I'm no real Naito fan either. He's okay in ring but his face annoys me. Looks like it belongs on a beaver or something. Plus it's obvious he's not on the same level as Okada, Nakamura and Tana after this ME run for him.

 

[Testify]

Yeah I'm no real Naito fan either. He's okay in ring but his face annoys me. Looks like it belongs on a beaver or something. Plus it's obvious he's not on the same level as Okada, Nakamura and Tana after this ME run for him.

Never agreed more with a post of yours.

 

[Stopspot]

Never agreed more with a post of yours.

Much more content with Goto challenging Okada next instead of them pushing on with Naito out of pure stubbornness. Goto is a workhorse and is at least over enough to not look like a fool next to the Rainmaker.

 

[Testify]

Much more content with Goto challenging Okada next instead of them pushing on with Naito out of pure stubbornness. Goto is a workhorse and is at least over enough to not look like a fool next to the Rainmaker.

I wish Goto would win, the man is a machine. Besides, Okada's reign is already 9+ months long. Goto needs to win this, now or never imho.

 

[Stopspot]

I wish Goto would win, the man is a machine. Besides, Okada's reign is already 9+ months long. Goto needs to win this, now or never imho.

Agreed. Goto deserves a win. But they are apparently doing a "black Ace" (Okada) vs "white Ace" (Tana) thing now. Since Tana cannot challenge for the heavyweight belt anymore he has dubbed himself the white ace of NJPW since he holds the white ic belt, and Okada is thus the black/dark ace. And Okada is just 3 defenses away (counting Goto) from tying with Tana for most defenses ever, so they kind of have that rivalry story going if they want to pursue that.

But Goto is closing in on being forever bridesmaid indeed.

 

[Testify]

Agreed. Goto deserves a win. But they are apparently doing a "black Ace" (Okada) vs "white Ace" (Tana) thing now. Since Tana cannot challenge for the heavyweight belt anymore he has dubbed himself the white ace of NJPW since he holds the white ic belt, and Okada is thus the black/dark ace. And Okada is just 3 defenses away (counting Goto) from tying with Tana for most defenses ever, so they kind of have that rivalry story going if they want to pursue that.

But Goto is closing in on being forever bridesmaid indeed.

Nakamura will win the strap back, I don't think he loses twice to Tanashi.

If Goto doesn't win, he'll never be taken srsly in the eyes of fans and the press. Now or never.

 

[Stopspot]

Nakamura will win the strap back, I don't think he loses twice to Tanashi.

If Goto doesn't win, he'll never be taken srsly in the eyes of fans and the press. Now or never.

If Tana retains, he'll actually be ahead of Nakamura in their wins/losses against each other for the first time ever. And if Nakamura wins it back, then what happens with Tana? He cannot go back to challenge Okada anymore until Okada wants him to basically, and he's too big of a star to just leave in midcard matches. I personally think Nakamura to be free as a challenger for Okada and setting up Chaos eventual downfall is much fresher for the product than Tana going back to being the challenger.